Hardneck garlic question

Hello all.

I planted up some hardneck garlic in mid October as I understand these types of garlic need to get cold over winter to make the bulb split into cloves.

However as the weather has been so warm most of my garlic has already started to sprout. Is it supposed to do that before the spring?

And do I need to protect those shoots from frost or are they hardy enough to leave out?

 

Mine show through in about 4 weeks in a 'normal' winter and they're always fine whatever the weather, better in fact than those I planted last autumn just before the cold weather that didn't show through until spring and only produced a mediocre crop.

I've read somewhere that the period of cold conditioning needs to be after the cloves form their roots systems, and seeing the shoots is a reassuring inidication that all's going according to plan.

 

I hope you dont mind if I jump in and ask a quick question-

My dad is out and about picking me up a few bits before my trip on Thursday. He has just texted to say he saw a Jamie Oliver branded pack of garlic in Homebase. Its a 3 bulb variety pack for £4.99.

Is that good value?

 

Taylors 3 bulb packs for £2.99 are the best value I've seen. I got 55 cloves from this one:

 

Mine are the same Littledragon, my first time growing them too. A neighbour looked at mine and said they would be fine, just leave them as they are. Crazy weather I suppose.

 

Surely they must need to be green during the cold conditioning spell, (winter), otherwise you could just leave them dry in a shed.

Cant be bothered to go down this route so I will just grow a spring planting kind again next year.
But then I'm no garlic connoisseur.

 

A post from back in November 2011:

And look what I found reduced to 50p today! Only a few cloves have gone soft and there's about 30 good garlic cloves + 1 elephant garlic clove in each 50p box. Despite having over 300 garlic already planted I just can't resist a bargain:



Only trouble is the ground's frozen solid at the moment.

But the Iberian Wight and Early Purple Wight are 2 new varieties I haven't previously grown.

 

I stuck one Effluent Garlic in a pot in the greenhouse Scrunge.



Its doing better than the lot outside, which have all flumped at the moment.

 

Was that one grown to commemorate Jimmy Hendrix's performance at the Isle of Wight festival?

 

If this cold carries on for much longer I might stick mine in 3" pots placed in a poly tunnel then transplant outside later. Only trouble is all my potting compost is frozen and Mrs Scrungee will get upset if I put a dirty 75 litre bag of frozen solid compost in front of the dining room fire to thaw out (even though I gave her some of the softish cloves for the kitchen). I might try smashing it up with a sledgehammer or axe and smuggling smaller lumps indoors.

 

Put it in the footwell of the car nexxt time you go for a drive, with the heater on full.

 

Its the one with Big Ears !

 

It's Heffalump Garlic.

 

Silly me,Elephant of course.
It's just reminded more that I have some cloves that need potting up in the garden and actually encouraged me to brave the artic weather to do it.